Scotland will play their World Cup qualifier against Belarus at Pittodrie on Saturday as originally planned. The decision to proceed with the Group Four tie on the day of the Princess of Wales' funeral was given the blessing of Buckingham Palace. The Scottish Football Association (SFA), whose patron is Queen Elizabeth, cleared the fixture after consultation with the Lord Chamberlain's office at the Palace.

A spokesman for the SFA said: "The people at the Lord Chamberlain's office are difficult to get hold of at this terrible time, but, during our consultation, they told us there would be no problem and that we should go ahead. "We explored every avenue before coming to a decision and everywhere we turned, there were huge logistical obstacles to switching the game to another day." The SFA came in for criticism on radio stations and in calls to newspapers yesterday, most of the aggrieved claiming that it was disrespectful to go ahead with the match just a few hours after the funeral. But it also had calls from fans as far off as London who have bought and paid for tickets, flights and hotels and whose interests had also to be protected. "We always knew we were in a no-win situation," the SFA spokesman said.